PG&E — fewer blackouts in ’13 than ever before

Blackouts used to be a particular problem for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

A blackout that struck San Francisco in December, 2003 disrupted traffic, shut down transit stations and left a third of the city without electricity. It started with a fire in a PG&E substation.

They strike all utility companies, of course. But for years, PG&E had a worse record on power outages than California’s other utilities, sometimes substantially worse.

That appears to be changing.

PG&E, California’s largest utility, reported Wednesday that it recorded fewer blackouts per customer during 2013 than in any other year on record. And when outages hit, the company restored power faster than ever before.

That may be cold comfort if your lights, space heater and fridge conk out in the dead of night. According to PG&E’s statistics, the company’s average customer went without power for a total of 117 minutes last year, just shy of two hours. The average customer lost power 1.06 times.

But as recently as 2011, the average PG&E customer spent 236 minutes without electricity, or nearly four hours. And that doesn’t include outages caused by extreme weather emergencies, earthquakes or wildfires. Throw in those acts of God, and the average PG&E customer in 2011 went without power for 312 minutes — five hours. By that measure, the total last year dropped to 140 minutes.

PG&E’s improving stats are, in part, the result of basic utility work — hunting for and replacing aging equipment that may be nearing the point of failure. But credit also goes to “smart grid” technology that helps PG&E detect problems on its system faster than before, isolate them before they spread, and restore power to many customers remotely.

“Thanks to the significant work that has been done to upgrade and modernize electric facilities throughout our service area, PG&E’s customers are experiencing the most reliable service in our company’s history,” said Geisha Williams, executive vice president of Electric Operations for PG&E.

Blackout statistics from California’s other utilities are not yet available for 2013. The California Public Utilities Commission requires the companies to report their outage data every year, with the reports filed in February. But in years past, PG&E has typically suffered more blackouts per customer than the other California utilities.

PG&E has often argued that its higher blackout statistics are, at least in part, a matter of geography. The company serves a vast territory, much of it rural, mountainous and sparsely populated. All of it endures more frequent storms than the southern part of the state, served by other utilities.

Blackouts have at times caused substantial friction between PG&E and its customers, not to mention public officials.

Two years ago, San Francisco’s Candlestick Park lost power at the start of a Monday Night Football broadcast, after one of three power lines supplying electricity to the stadium snapped. In a notorious 2003 incident, a PG&E substation fire in San Francisco knocked out power to one third of the city during the Christmas shopping season. Many businesses lost electricity for more than a day.